Tridentine Mass

The Extraordinary Form

Tridentine Mass News

Chino Hills, California, January 26, 2009: With permission of the pastor, Fr. Patrick O'Hagan, SS. CC., a group
of parishoners will be polling the parish to determine interest in a local Tridentine Mass.
Please see CH.Tridentine.TV. for more information.

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The Tridentine Mass Today

With the release of the Summorum Pontificum, our blessed Pope Benedict XVI has clarified that
the Tridentine Mass (the mass codified by Pius V at Trent, and undergoing minor revisions up to 1962) is
still a valid mass, and is available to any Priest who wishes to celebrate it. It puts forth guidelines
for establishing a regularly celebrated Tridentine mass, as well as permitting its celebration by any Priest at any
time.

At Tridentine Mass TV, we wish to promote the beautiful, unchanging, reverent Holy Tridentine Mass per the 1962 Roman missal, and per the guidelines of Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum.
Tridentine Mass TV is intended to be a resource for the United States (and if wished it can be extended to Canada and elsewhere) for
local groups attempting to establish the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in their parishes. Tridentine Mass TV has subdomains
for local groups in various geographical regions to post news, information, etc. An example for Chino Hills, California is
CH.Tridentine.TV .

Some Words on the Motu Propio and the Tridentine (Gregorian) Mass By Cardinal Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos is the president of the Vatican's Ecclesia Dei Commission, a commission originally started by
Pope John Paul II to administer and manage the use of the Tridentine Mass. Pope Benedict XVI has kept Cardinal Hoyos in this position. On June
14, 2008, Cardinal Hoyos granted an interview to the press in London. Some highlights of his comments are presented here.

Reuters: In some parts of the world there is resistance by local bishops to
allowing the faithful the freedom to celebrate the Extraordinary Form. What do you
recommend that the faithful do?

Cardinal Hoyos: Be informed! Bishops and faithful do not understand the meaning of
the Motu Proprio. Many of the difficulties come because they don’t know
the reality of the Gregorian Rite - this is the just name for the Extraordinary
Form, because this Mass was never prevented, never. Today for many
bishops it is difficult because they don’t have priests who know Latin. Many
seminaries give very few hours to Latin - not enough to give the necessary
preparation to celebrate the Extraordinary Form well.

Others think that the Holy Father is going against the Second Vatican
Council. That is absolute ignorance. The Fathers of the Council never
celebrated a Mass other than the Gregorian one. It [the Novus Ordo] came
after the Council... The Holy Father, who is a theologian and who was in
the preparation for the Council, is acting exactly in the way of the Council,
offering with freedom the different kinds of celebration. This celebration, the
Gregorian one, was the celebration of the Church during more than a
thousand years. Most of our saints grew out of this rite.

Others say one cannot celebrate with the back to the people. This is
ridiculous. The Eucharist is offered to the Father. The Son of God has
sacrificed Himself to the Father, with His face to the Father. It is not against
the people. It is for the people. To face east is not lack of courtesy to the
people.

Daily Telegraph: So would the Pope like to see many ordinary parishes
making provision for the Gregorian Rite?

Cardinal Hoyos:All the parishes. Not many - all the parishes,
because this is a gift of
God. He offers these riches, and it is very important for new generations to
know the past of the Church. This kind of worship is so noble, so beautiful -
the deepest theologians’ way to express our faith. The worship, the music,
the architecture, the painting, makes a whole that is a treasure. The Holy
Father offers to all the people this possibility, not only the groups who
demand it, but so that everybody knows this way of celebrating the
Eucharist in the Catholic Church.

Daily Telegraph: What would be the practical steps for ordinary parishes
[to prepare for the Gregorian Rite]?

Cardinal Hoyos: The parish priest should
select an hour on Sundays to celebrate
the Mass, and prepare the community with catechesis to understand
it, to appreciate the power of the silence, the power of the sacred way
in front of God, the deep theology, to discover how and why the priest
represents the person of Christ and to pray with the priest.

The Tablet: Your Eminence, I think many
Catholics are rather confused by this new emphasis on the Tridentine Rite, mainly
because we were taught that the new Rite represented real progress, and many of us who have
grown up with it see it as real progress, that there are Eucharistic ministers,
women on the sanctuary, that we are all priests, prophets and kings. This
new emphasis to many of us seems to deny that.

Cardinal Hoyos:What is progress?
‘Progredire’ means [offering] the best to God...
I am surprised, because many young people are enthusiastic about
the celebration of the Gregorian Rite.

The Tablet: Should it therefore supersede the new Rite? Should we go
back?

Cardinal Hoyos: It is not going back: it is taking a treasure which is present, but was not
provided.

Daily Telegraph: There is great enthusiasm
among younger Catholics for
the Extraordinary Form and they are deeply grateful to the Holy Father.

Cardinal Hoyos: Progress is important but
what is it? Progress is discovering
contemplation. Silence is needed. A person who has no time for silence is
a poor person. The Holy Mass is sacrifice - Golgotha, Calvary, the Cross of
Christ - contemplate this. This is freedom, redemption. This Victim will be
our Judge. Sacrifice first, the meal afterwards.

The Tablet:Can this not be expressed in
the new rite?

Cardinal Hoyos:Yes, but the forty years
experience has not always been good. Many
abandoned the sense of adoration. We are brothers but not saved as
brothers. The sacrifice saves us. The mystery saves us. We sing
because we are brothers. We sing because we are celebrating, but we
keep silent because we are in front of the mystery. The new rite can
express this, but so many abuses led to people and children abandoning
the Mass and the Church. The Extraordinary Form is a Mass of signs, of
the presence of God, of progress!

Daily Telegraph: Have we gone beyond the “stable group”?

Cardinal Hoyos:It’s a matter of common sense.
In every bishop’s household there
is a chapel and there are maybe three or four persons. This is a stable
group... It is not possible to give two persons a Mass, but two here,
two there, two elsewhere - they can have it. They are a stable group.

The Tablet: You mentioned abuses in the new rite post-Vatican II. What
are they?

Cardinal Hoyos: So many. Priests celebrating in clown’s clothing with a wig and
painted lips - a travesty. A priest celebrating Sunday Mass wearing a
mini skirt. Another priest who invited a Protestant minister to
celebrate the Eucharist. And another who introduced his wife and
sons before celebrating Mass. There is an atmosphere which makes for
abuses and that must be changed. In my poor opinion the new presence of
the Gregorian Rite will help us to take seriously the identity of our Faith,
respecting all the other ways of thinking but keeping strongly our identity
with Christ, with Christ in Calvary, with Christ in Golgotha, with Christ
offering His blood for our salvation.”